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“Contemporary Canonicity, or What Not to Read”, Workshop at BACLS, What Happens Now Conference, July 2018

This workshop and discussion group debated the idea of canonicity in the research and teaching of contemporary literary studies. Participants were asked to discuss the literary texts, authors, and/or theorists that they believe to be “essential” to students and scholars of the contemporary and, through a reading of Amy Hungerford’s now infamous ‘On Not Reading’ (2016), debated the necessity of establishing a sense of canonicity in the field of contemporary literary studies as well as the right to refuse certain dominant cultural figures.

This panel, featuring Diletta De Cristofaro, Arin Keeble, Paul Crosthwaite, Christina Brennan, and Caroline Wintersgill, consisted of flash papers interrogating one key idea around the notion of the contemporary in literary studies. In order: Douglas Coupland’s idea of denarration and how this is reflected in contemporary writings, 9/11 as a period marker, the identification of the contemporary with the ‘new’, the authority and reception of literary prizes, qualitative methods in literary studies.

In April 2016, The Guardian published ‘Generation Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet forever’ by the celebrated academic and nature writer Robert Macfarlane. Reflecting on the article’s importance as a critical experiment and, perhaps, a vital form of public engagement, Contemporary Studies Network (CSN) asked six of its members, working across very different areas of literary and cultural studies, to respond to and extend Macfarlane’s article, mapping the different ways in which literary scholars might approach the age of the Anthropocene. Conducted via email, this roundtable conversation asks to what extent the Anthropocene marks a new era in literary criticism, how exactly it extends preexisting strands of ecocriticism and trauma studies, and what the global scope of the term might be beyond the confines of the Western literary canon. Discussion ranges from issues of temporality to genre and form and it also addresses Macfarlane’s rhetoric, his call to arms for those working in the humanities, for a more comprehensive investigation in to the roles of literature and art in responding to and representing what may become a new epoch.

You’ve Been Trumped Too (2016) explores the confrontation between the Scottish residents living close to a golf resort near Aberdeen and the billionaire attempting to become the next US president. The screening of Anthony Baxter’s documentary was followed by a discussion hosted by CSN and chaired by Dr Arin Keeble (NTU), featuring Dr Stephanie Genz (Nottingham Trent University), a specialist in media studies, Dr Ben Offiler (Sheffield Hallam University), an expert in US history and foreign relations, Professor Sue Pryce (University of Nottingham), an expert in both US and British politics, and Dr Robin Vandome (University of Nottingham), an expert in American intellectual and cultural history. CSN also hosted a presidential quiz – created by Dr Rachel Williams (University of Nottingham) – while the initial projections came in. For further information see the leaflet.